Prayer is the master key

‘Father, the hour has come:

glorify your Son

so that your Son may glorify you;

and, through the power over all mankind that you have given him,

let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.

And eternal life is this:

to know you,

the only true God,

and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on earth

and finished the work that you gave me to do.

Now, Father, it is time for you to glorify me

with that glory I had with you

before ever the world was.

I have made your name known

to the men you took from the world to give me.

They were yours and you gave them to me,

and they have kept your word.

Now at last they know

that all you have given me comes indeed from you;

for I have given them the teaching you gave to me,

and they have truly accepted this, that I came from you,

and have believed that it was you who sent me.

I pray for them;

I am not praying for the world

but for those you have given me,

because they belong to you:

all I have is yours

and all you have is mine,

and in them I am glorified.

I am not in the world any longer,

but they are in the world,

and I am coming to you.’

1. On this 7th Sunday of Easter, the readings focus on prayer. The first reading shows the apostles gathered in prayer together with Mary Mother of Jesus and other women (Act1:12-14). The second reading invites Christian to praise God with their virtuous lives (1Pet 4:13-16) and the gospel presents Jesus praying in the midst of his apostles. These texts present one message, namely that prayer is an identity of God’s people. There is a song that says that prayer is the master key and that was why Jesus started his mission with prayer and also ended with the priestly prayer. When we say that pray is a master key, I perfectly understand what that means from my experienceof workingin a parish in France. On my arrival at the parish, I was given a single key that opens all the doors in the church and the fathers’ house. That is the master key and prayer is like that. Our question today is: why and how must we pray? Today’s readings have the answer to the question.

2. Why must we pray? We must pray because we are God’s children and prayer is our only way of talking to him and hearing his voice. What child would run from talking with his father?Jesus commanded his apostles to pray. At the garden of Gethsemane he said to them: “Pray so that you do not fall into temptation(Mt 26:41). Before his ascension, he told the to tarry in Jerusalem, praying and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Lk24:49). We have to pray because Jesus also prayed. He was spending nights in prayers. He was going to lonely places to pray. He taught his disciples to pray and he prayed before his disciples. His last activity was prayer. It was during his prayers in Gethsemane that he was arrested (Mt26:26-46). With all these, Jesus shows that prayer is the inevitable manner of remaining connected with God. It is imperative for all followers of Christ to pray always.

3. How do we pray? From today’s gospel, we see that for Jesus, prayer should be an intimate conversation between God and man. Five times he addressed God as Father. He concentrated first on the relationship between him and the Father and asked him to glorify his son. Prayer should first of be about our relationship with God and our need for salvation and glory. It is not vanity to ask God to give us glory. Jesus did it and we can imitate him . After talking about himself, Jesus focused on those whom God has given him, his disciples and those who through their ministry will come to believe in him. He asked God to protect them from evil. Prayer must be large. We must pray for others, especially those who are close to us, those whom God has given to us. Jesus’ prayer for the disciples was done while they were listening. He thus teaches that we can pray for people in their presence. It is right to be prayed for by another. This is what happens when we ask priests to pray for us.

4. The first reading gives us another dimension of prayer. Prayer should not only be an individual affair as is the case in today’s gospel. It must also be collective. It is not “to your tents, oh Israel”, it is rather in togetherness. “All these joined in continuous prayer, together with several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus (Act 1:14).” As a church we must pray together and continously. This clearly highlights the need for family and group prayers. “The family that prays together stays together”, says St. Augustin. A group that prays together also stays together. We are not saved alone. We are not Christians alone. Apart from Sunday masses, a christian must belong to other associations in the church where he can pray together with others.

5. Some people complain that their work does not allow them to have enough time for prayers. This complaint is linked to a wrong notion of prayer as an act that must be carried out in a particular environment. As we can see in our readings, Jesus prayed in an open place with the disciples. The disciples prayed in the upper room. We can pray any where and any time even in the midst of our daily preoccupations. The story of finding a wife for Isaac, Abraham’s son, shows that God is ever ready to connect with whoever calls upon him independently of the environment. In Genesis 24, Abraham charged his servant to find a wife from his own people for his son Isaac. The servant undertook the journey without knowing anyone who could guide him to Abraham’s people. He only knew the town. When he arrived, he went to the well of the town and connected with God through prayer. He asked God to make his mission successful by giving him some signs that will help him to make a good decision. It was a very short prayer. He could hardly finish his prayer when the signs he asked for were manifested. God answered as he expected and made his mission successful. This encounter is an invitation for us to always remember that we must accompany everything we do with prayer and that no work can stop us from praying. This does not really demand a lot of time. All that is needed is the consciousness of God’s presence even in the challenges of our daily work. Prayer remains the key to opening the door to God’s presence. We must pray always without losing heart.